After 50 years
by siri writes
Summary: A one-shot for when Rhys returns home to Velaris from Under the Mountain. Angst and Fluff ensues.


It had been 50 years. 50 goddamn years and my cousin still had not returned home. Every time I thought of him, my entire being went sick with tremendous guilt at the thought that I had not been enough to save him. I was going to kill that bastard when he returned home. _If_ he returned home. For throwing a shield over the Night Court so that none of us were able to get out.

I saw the looks on Azriel's and Cassian's faces sometimes. Their combined guilt far deeper than mine could ever be. For it had been their _brother _that they had not been able to save. They had not been able to save that same brother that had time and time again saved them.

Even Amren did not make as many jokes, demand as many jewels. _He_ had always been the one that had bound our group together. The centre of the circle for whom each of us were unfulfilled without. 50 years. That _female _had kept him under that supposedly sacred mountain for 50 damned years and likely sentenced him to all manner of torturing.

I walked into the terrace of the townhouse, desperately needing some fresh air to distract me from my morose. thoughts. I saw a male there, with his wings spread out, looking out over the city. I did not even register the black hair that was tinged with flecks of blue or the fine clothes the male adorned. "Get the hell out, Cassian. The balcony is mine right now."

The male turned around and my jaw dropped. Standing right before me was Rhys. But surely… No. I had just been thinking about him. This was nothing more than a cruel trick of the light, mocking my guilt and sorrow at my cousins' loss. But then he spoke, and I knew it truly was the High Lord of the Night Court. "She's my mate. She's my mate. My mate. My mate." I was already at a loss for words, but the feral yet empty look in his eyes unhinged me. And this… mate of his. Surely not. Surely the cauldron couldn't be so cruel as to make that _bitch _his mate.

He came up to me and grabbed my shoulders, shaking it violently. As if I had not heard the first time, he said, "she's my mate, Mor. And she's with _him._"

I recovered barely enough to find my voice. "Surely not… Amarantha?" The tremor in my voice was apparent. The shock of seeing my cousin after 50 whole years shaking me. I did not blink for fear that he would disappear again, and I would be left alone with my guilt and misery.

"No. Not her. Feyre." He said that name as if it was the most important word he had ever said. The name on his tongue was a prayer and declaration of love at the same time. I grabbed his hand, leading him to one of the iron chairs on the rooftop and embraced him.

This male, who together with Cassian and Azriel had saved me from a fate far worse than death. And then we were both crying. Me with the shock of seeing my cousin again after so many years and him with the shock that he now had a mate. We stayed that way for a very long time. It could've seconds or minutes or hours. I didn't know.

"Tell me everything," I said.

And so, he did.

The story was so ridiculously astounding that I would've thought he was lying were it not for the way he had returned home. The story of this young, human female who had freed the entire land single-handedly. And Rhys told me how four years ago, he had received visions of a beautiful, human woman painting flowers on a table. And then he told me how he had seen her in person for the first time during the Calanmai celebrations at the Spring Court. Rhys had had lovers, but never had he ever truly loved someone as he did now. I could tell how enamoured he was with this human-turned-fae female. How irrevocably in love he was.

And she was his mate. His mate, who was in love with the High Lord of the Spring Court.

Then, suddenly I heard the flapping of two wings and both Rhys and I looked skyward. Cassian and Azriel, not properly seeing who it was beside me put their hands on their weapons as they slowly made their way towards the ground. Cassian called out in that large voice of his, "Mor, please take your _companion _elsewhere, I want to be able to eat."

Rhys had turned around to face me so they couldn't see who it was, but he rose and turned around just as they landed. "Do I look so different that you don't even recognise your own High Lord?"

They both froze in their footsteps and just stared at Rhys. Finally, Cassian drew his sword and levelled it at Rhys, "I'm usually quite tolerable, but when someone pretends to be my High Lord, you can find I get quite… _angry._"

Rhys simply pushed the sword away from where it was aimed at his throat without an ounce of fear in his life. "Really, Cassian?" he then turned to face me. "Has something happened in the last fifty years I was gone? I don't quite remember Cassian as being tolerable."

And that's how Cassian and Azriel knew it was really him. Cassian made to move towards Rhys, but his knees gave out and he sank to his knees, yet still not taking his eyes off Rhys, as if trying to drink in the sight. Azriel still had not moved from the spot where he had frozen, he too drinking in the sight of Rhys standing there in flesh and blood. Cassian finally rose, although tears were still unashamedly streaming down his face as he went to hug his brother for the first time in 50 years. And Rhys hugged him just as fiercely. Soon Azriel gained enough coherency to move to embrace his brother as well. And finally, after half a century, the three brothers were once again reunited.

"You absolute prick. We were stuck in this court for 50 bloody years, while you went through hell and back. I am going to pummel you."

Azriel had finally managed to find his voice. "And I'll help him."

But there was no true bite to their words. For Rhys' smile had completely vanished at the mention of that place. What had happened? What had shaken this unshakeable High Lord so thoroughly, that he had returned home like _this. _This body whose soul was empty and whose heart did not belong to him. I just wanted the carefree, flirtatious and loveable Rhys back. I wanted the cousin who had told me jokes at a time when I had not cared if I was alive or dead. And now he felt the same way.


End file.
